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+++The Forges of Mars: Bits & Models Sellers+++

Carlson793

Posted 14 March 2015 - 02:01 PM

Carlson793

+FRATER DOMUS+

+ FRATER DOMUS +

1,422 posts

Location:Louisville, KY, USA

Faction: Adeptus Mechanicus

In the interests of providing the B&C Membership with the parts they need to make the model they envision in their head, we are collecting links in this thread to various sellers of bits and models for use with Warhammer 40k.

This is a work in progress. Expect new links to be added on a semi-regular basis, and possibly other moving to new categories as appropriate. If you have a site not listed in this thread, or discover a dead link, please contact myself or one of the PCA Mods and we'll see about getting it added.

Anarchy Models - A very limited selection of AM/IG bits. Their main contribution to the hobby is their stencil system.Anvil Industry - They also have their Miniature Viewer that lets you virtually build a model from their bits

Custom Decal Companies
Links and commentary in this section is taken unedited (except for the addition of spoiler tags) from Rob de Bie's tutorial on custom decals. Scroll through the link for a great tutorial on ALPS printed decals.

Spoiler

Here is a list of around 40 companies and individuals that offer custom Alps decal printing service, grouped by country:

Upnorth (e-mail). Produces Alps decals on demand, apart from their regular screen printed decals.FFSMC Productions. FFSMC has its own Alps and laser printed decal lines in several scales, but also does custom work.

Germany

Spoiler

DecalDoc. Has a large line of 'regular' Alps for race cars in various scales, and also does custom printingDecalPrint.de. Probably only truck decalsDrucker-Onkel Decalservice. All kinds of decalsHaHen, Harald Hensel. Has a line of 'regular' Alps/OKI decals for post-war Luftwaffe models, but also does custom printingPeddinghaus Decals. Has a large line of 'regular' Alps for many subjects and scales, and also does custom printingTailormadedecals. Has a catalog of decals for large RC planes, but also does custom printing

Italy

Spoiler

Luca Beato. Has a line of Alps decals for Italian aircraft, and also does custom printing for all subjects.Max-Model. Has a line of decals for Italian emergency vehicles, for trucks and for slotcars. They also do custom printing for all subjects.

The Netherlands

Spoiler

Black Lion Decals. Black Lion has its own decal lines in 1/72, 1/35 and 1/16, but also does custom work.Scale:Print. Produces Alps/OKI decals for truck models, and also does custom decals for other applications. Stopped accepting orders in August 2011 due to printer problems,. Resumed production 1 November, with a non-Alps printer

MAV Decals, does custom work beside a regular line of Alps decals for South African subjects

Spain

Spoiler

Decal Lab, a graphic designer who enjoys making and printing decals for cars and bikesMask Decals. Miguel Sastre has designed and printed dozens of custom car and motor Alps decals in various scales, that can be viewed in his blog

Fallout Hobbies - Recently completed their Kickstarter. Uses a non-ALPS, underprinting laser printer. Also has vinyl airbrush stencils.Fireball Modelworks, Joseph Osborn. Produces a line of Alps decals for helicopter models and does custom work.Great Decals. Has links to numerous custom railroad decal printersGreg's Decal Graphics. Besides a line of Alps printed hot rod and custom car decals, Greg also offers custom decal workGWS Custom Decals. Designs and prints custom decals for car modelsJohn Hagen (e-mail), Alps decals any scale down to and including N scale. Can do artwork from photos or sketchesKadee Quality Products. A train manufacturer that also does custom decal workModelWerks. Produces decals for Bandai Gundam models, and also does custom decal workRed Pegasus Decals. Produces a line of Alps printed air racing decals, but also does custom workScale Rail Graphics. Produces decals for primarily model railroading, and also does custom decal work, but no race car, military or rocket decals.Shawn Hull Decals. Custom decals are no longer mentioned on the website, so this service is probably discontinued.Tango Papa Decals, Tom Prestia. Tango Papa also sells the decal paper that is most popular with US modelers.

Some items to discuss with your custom printer are: type of software and version used (CorelDraw, Illustrator, or perhaps PDF files), which ink-sets are used (always CMYK, but possibly RGB too, and just maybe Kodak orange and green), whether the printer can print two white layers on top of each other (not all printers can do this, yet you need two layers to make opaque white), whether black can be printed over other colors or not, and which decal paper is used (thickness etc), margins to be used in the artwork (at least 15 mm top and bottom, 5 mm left and right), whether the artwork should be put in separate pages, separate layers or even separate files.

Most companies will also offer a decal design service. This is usually quite expensive, which is quite understandable if you look at the amount of work involved (see above!).

Carlson793

Posted 28 March 2015 - 12:45 PM

Carlson793

+FRATER DOMUS+

+ FRATER DOMUS +

1,422 posts

Location:Louisville, KY, USA

Faction: Adeptus Mechanicus

Oh, the list is far from finished. So far I've only gotten up to the 'g's in my list (with a few notable exceptions). But, just added Bits and Kits to my review list (about half the sites in that list are either dead or whose only use to 40K is that they are 28mm models - 'Okay, that rust monster over there? Yeah, he's a Bloodthirster. And that flumph?...')

not advertising for him, but I use him almost as often as bits-world, good service, no issues.

bits-world has awesome customer service btw, I've had pieces missing(like the front of a DV terminator) and he immediately sent me a replacement after messaging him on eBay, another time my order didnt arrive in like two weeks...(lost in the mail, had it being tracked and it disappeared) he(she?) sent me replacements free

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country, he won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

infyrana

Posted 16 April 2015 - 08:05 PM

infyrana

+FRATER DOMUS+

+ FRATER DOMUS +

1,502 posts

Location:UK

Excellent thread btw !

Would you know if any of these did Thousand Sons heads? (Apart from GW)

Google up "Thousand sons heads" and check images. Off the top of that quick view I saw ideas from Kromlech, Maxmini, Spellcrow and PuppetsWar, really depends on how Egyptian you want to go. Seriously, I didn't even realise there were this many options myself until I just looked.

As an additional question for this thread, does anyone have any good alternatives and easily purchasable answers to MkIII or MkIV Torsos? I tried 'greenstuffing' armour plates on basic SM torsos to cover the midsection and groin the other day, but failed miserably with my lack-of-skills. I saw the ones from Master Crafted Miniatures, but haven't seen them modelled up yet.

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

Carlson793

Posted 24 July 2015 - 07:55 PM

Carlson793

+FRATER DOMUS+

+ FRATER DOMUS +

1,422 posts

Location:Louisville, KY, USA

Faction: Adeptus Mechanicus

@lokkorex: Glad to help. I still have a huge text file full of old links to check and review. That's been on hold while I take care of other projects here and there, but what's posted so far covers the 'big names'.

mithrilforge

Posted 11 August 2015 - 01:33 AM

mithrilforge

+FRATER DOMUS+

+ FRATER DOMUS +

2,932 posts

Location:Australia.

Faction: 40k - xenos & ad-mech

I saw Forgeworld bitz sellers, and I was all like

Then I saw the prices, and I was all

gotta say im not suprised... someone selling select FW bits isnt going to be all community minded im sure the bits sellers are probably Ltd Ed codex sellers too you'd be better off trying to share a purchase with some of your friends to get some choice parts each....

Mithril

MajorNese- In the grim darkness of the near future, there is only complaints.